Downspout splash pads have been used for years on residential, commercial and industrial buildings in an effort to kill the impact and energy of water exiting from a vertical outlet such as downspout. Usually made of pre-cast concrete or other composite material, conventional splash pads commonly come in two sizes, one for residential uses and the other, typically slightly larger, for commercial and industrial buildings. One of the principal drawbacks to conventional splash pads is that their designs do not take into account the volume of water that will impact and pass over them. Conventional splash pads may kill the impact energy immediately below the downspout opening, but they do nothing to stop the erosion of soil just downhill of the splash pads caused by large volumes of water discharged by the downspout.
Soil erosion is a serious problem especially in the case of buildings with large roof expanses. Indeed, the problem is so pronounced that in order to curtail erosion in and around buildings with large roof expanses, designers of industrial buildings have opted for underground drainage systems to intercept the runoff and convey the runoff to other pipes that eventually discharge to a ditch outfall. This approach to solving the soil erosion problem is very expensive.
Therefore, there is and continues to be a need for a splash pad that not only dissipates the energy of the falling water, but also acts to control soil erosion downstream or downhill from the splash pad.